


Sail Away Sweetie, Sail Across the Sea

by lover_of_blue_roses



Series: Stockings 2019 [3]
Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: DL Stocking 2019, Gen, Space AU, alien!freddie, astronaut!brian, astronaut!deacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-20 14:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22019176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_blue_roses/pseuds/lover_of_blue_roses
Summary: "I just want to go home" said the astronaut."So come home," said ground control."S o c o m e h o m e," said a voice from the stars.
Series: Stockings 2019 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576186
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: DL Stockings 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ActualBlanketGremlin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualBlanketGremlin/gifts).



> prompt from https://spacealienstuff.tumblr.com/post/189278077048/just-going-home

Brian was glad at least to not have to wear a spacesuit in the hub as Deaky's main non-work chatter was to bitch about each and every one of his discomforts. Brian could sympathize, having worn the suits himself, how the moment you slipped on the helmet, your nose itches, in fact everything itched and you were trapped with limited range of motion unable to scratch yourself. But that didn't mean he wanted to hear about it for the next few hours of Deaky's space walk.

So he had lowered Deaky's voice, not muted of course, and as protocol, Deaky would beep when switching from chatter to live work. Instead he dedicated his gaze to out the window. NASA had frowned upon having windows when they could have camera feeds but thankful someone with some sense hadn't locked them into a windowless hub for months on end. 

Io remained as colorful as ever with it's largely yellow-green surface smeared and tipped with mountains of red and black. It appeared as though snow was falling, leaving the white tracks and snow drifts to dot the landscape but it was actually volcanic ash. Scattered smoke plumes hung in the air from the distant volcanoes yet leaving large swathes of the sky still visible. The thin atmosphere made it near transparent but Brian didn't care about that, what had his attention was Jupiter huge in the sky. He could look at it everyday and never grow bored, the only thing better than this site was possibly the potential of a Titan mission. 

Brian couldn't get enough of it all of his life and yet... The idea of another space mission was daunting. While he was a million miles from his problems they festered and worsened, growing such deep roots he had no hope of pulling them once he returned. Yet that made him want to leave all the more. 

He had a wife on earth that he no longer loved, in a marriage that was trapping them both. There was no more making this work, the separation had been over half a year and now it was only time to sign the papers. "I just want to go home," Brian said to himself. He didn't mean anything literal, not four walls, no geographic location, nor a tangible building. He craved for comfort and joy that was found in a home. As though he was missing a place he'd never known and had never had. Yet he craved it all the same.

"So go home and don't take the next mission," Deaky's quiet tinny voice came from the speaker.

Brian hadn't realised he'd left his mic on, he flipped it off but it was too late. He didn't dare tell Deaky anything, fearing all his loneliness would pour out. As though too embarrassed to face Deaky, he turned his back to the console and looked out the hub's other side. No more Jupiter but instead a night sky lit up with the galaxy, a giant white snake slithering through the sky. 

Somehow saying it outloud made it more true for all that he would not entertain Deaky's suggestion. After all the wonders of Titan's lakes still awaited a human discoverer. And yet he did just want to go home.

"So come home," said a voice. This time it was not Deaky. What it sounded like was a voice inside his mind but the space program had oh so carefully screened their astronauts, so surely not? Yet the voice like honey came again, "Come home to me darling." 

Brian didn't know; one moment he was sitting with his back to the console staring at the hub window and the next moment he is standing before what can best be described as a throne room; for there is a throne and a man with a crown sat upon it. He appears extremely human, bilateral, bipedal, hands at the end of arms and a standard two eyes, one nose two nostrils, one mouth, one face. 

"Hello," the being speaks in the Queen's English. He has short raven hair, a fine nose and his skin looks as though it is covered in the finest layer of frost. His eyes are so dark that Brian cannot tell if he has an iris at all. He is dressed casually in jeans with a tucked in tank top but for the giant red cape trimmed with ermine that pools around him and the crown upon his brow. 

The silence hangs and they lift an eyebrow questioningly to Brian. The astronaut remains deeply confused but his proper manners squeeze out of his throat in a, "Hello, I'm Doctor Brian May, it's a pleasure to meet you."

The man -probably a hallucination from a gas leak in the hub- lights up at this, smiling widely with unusual teeth as he stands up and descends the platform in a regal manner, "The pleasure is definitely all mine, my dear. I'm Freddie."

What a... common name. If he's an alien, or Brian's brain's attempt at one, he's far too normal with that appearance body and clothing, accent, and name. Freddie extends a hand and Brian takes it hesitantly but there is a warm, solid arm under his touch despite it's frosted appearance. Freddie's skin bared by the tank top is sprinkled with dark hair, along his forearm, his pit, and sprouting from his chest and spilling out from the shirt's top. 

They barely take one step and it is as though the facade falls. The color of the walls fades to show seemingly giant ice bricks, white with blue trim and yet Brian does not feel any cold. It remains as elegant as any baroque palace. He looks through the wall and sees there are no other rooms bordering this one for a frozen landscape stretches out flatly before him. 

It's hard to tell this close up, possibly literally on the surface if he's correct, but Brian believes himself now on Europa although how that or any of this is possible is beyond him. For all of his life as Brian looked up to the sky and wondered. Which is why even though the lineae are faint their color against the white landscape, it is distinctive of this moon. 

A cat joins them as they walk down the hallway, Brian isn't sure if his eyes can process where its come from, straight out of the walls but now that it's here it dutifully follows it's master. That isn't the only visual tick for the hallway they walk down seems to have no end. It appears to fade into a white fog but as they walk as to approach that fog, it appears to retreat and reveal more of the hallway, much like the end of the rainbow. So some kind of trick of the light or perhaps the illusion is in his mind. 

For the visuals are not the only oddity, Brian is experiencing something else which could be either a failing of his body or from this realm. It is as though Brian has no voice and no mind. He thinks I will ask this Freddie where I am and how I came to be here, but his mouth remains closed and the words unsaid. He tries a different way of wording it but still nothing. What is his purpose here and when if ever will he return? Perhaps somehow the force that has brought him here has some control over his mind, which is why he could only see the ice palace for what it was once he had accepted this new reality and consented to following Freddie.

He can't ask Freddie where they are going either. He licks his lips, what can he say then? He thinks of various questions until one tumbles from his throat. "When will supper be served?" It's such a surprise to hear his own voice that his feet stumble on the smooth floor and he can't help but to tack on a 'sir' at the end of his question as though to reward Freddie for this tiny freedom.

Freddie turns to him with an odd questioning look, "Something appears to be the matter?" He stops their walking and furrows his brow as he looks up into the astronaut's face. "Can you see me darling?" And Freddie lightly places his hand on Brian's own. 

It is as though he has fallen into a zoetrope. The images before his eyes alternate and spin seamlessly. One image is of a palace as fine as Versailles with marble flooring and floor to ceiling french doors that open onto a sprawling garden of neatly trimmed hedges. The next image is of this winter building made of ice and Europa's frozen landscape.

Brian blinks, shaking his head, it feels so terribly wrong. He tries to focus, to get a grasp on reality again. And now he's standing in his University's halls with its smoothed red brick and classical stone arches, the view is now that of the university courtyard with cars buzzing by in the distance. 

None of these seem to be the truth but somehow whatever there is to see must be filtered through his brain and his own personal experiences. The closest might be the winter palace and so he closes his eyes and tries to focus on that. He feels Freddie hand change where it rests on his skin and just before he opens his eyes he tries to focus on the wanting the truth or whatever is closest rather than another pretty fantasy.

The gasp is completely involuntary. Where Freddie's skin had been a human beige under a lightly crystallized coating, he is now as white as the landscape. He looks possibly like a human might if frozen alive. Now however the frost patterns are large, distinct fractals of a bright blue that reflects wondrously with the liquid gold he appears to be wearing. 

Instead of jeans and a tank top, his outfit has a tight bodice that hugs his slender triangular torso off the shoulder sleeves that extend like voluminous wings, that serve the same purpose as his cape. Upon his brow there still sits a crown and still rather looks like the royal jewels. A sign of royalty his brain fails to understand then.

Freddie is looking at him with those same strikingly dark eyes, made all the more prominent for his iced skin. "It was not my intention to deceive you. I am sorry. This is my first time dealing with one of your kind. I have tried my best to have the atmosphere you need and the temperature that is comfortable."

"I- yes thank you, this temperature is ideal," Brian answers honestly.

"I heard you calling me," Freddie continues. 

Brian smiles shyly, hiding his expression behind his curls. He has questions, endless questions really, but as long as he might get some answers and isn't being held hostage, he doesn't mind staying here. He looks out over the foreign, unearthly landscape. "You heard my call?" 

"Though you were many miles away, your voice was true and pure and so I heard you calling me."

"Oh." For what else is there to say. He was lonely, alone in all the world not for the first time, but this time someone heard him and someone answered his wishes. He clicks his teeth and finds his words are no longer under lock and key but once again free for him to use. "Is that why- Why am I here?"

The being with the crown, who's name can surely not be Freddie for how fantastical he is, shrugs as they resume their walk down this endless corridor in pursuit of that elusive white fog. "You asked to be here, so you are here."

So it was as Brian thought, he wasn't special or chosen for some great plan, he was nearly close enough to this Freddie to be caught up in it. This could make him feel less special but Brian has already had a taste of fame when they announced he'd be an astronaut in the first manned party to Io, and so he wants nothing to do with fame. He'd much rather be another faceless, nameless cog in the machine, no different than the rest.

He looked away and down shyly to see to see the cat has become something that appears very similar to a will-o'-the-wisp. Its body has become like that of the flame, blue body flickers, which rather explains how it might have been able to pass through a wall if it is so intangible, and so translucent. It does still somehow appear to be alive as it follows them and responses to their movements. 

They come to a 'room' that looks like an Earthen mountainside. Brian is pretty sure they are not outside for there is no wind here and surely, be he on Europa or some other distant part of the galaxy, it be inhospitable. Freddie said so himself with talk of the atmosphere and the temperature. And if Freddie has somehow recreated Earth this would be much colder. 

They are on a steep trail lined pine trees, everything is covered in a thick layer of snow. Compare to the ceiling in the hallways that was high but present, this one is either too high or painted like an illusion as though he was really outside. Everything looks like Earthen and yet just the slightest bit off. It is painted the greenest shade of blue and the snow is perfectly perfect but that would make sense in a room that has no wind to disturb it. Snow, in large clumps or perhaps massive flakes, is suspended in the air barely falling down as though they stand in a life sized snow globe. 

Freddie leads him into the snow and they leave behind them a trail of fresh footprints as Brian is led to a log cabin between the tall pine trees. Brian is a little nervous if he is to meet other aliens. So he turns to ask a question of the one that heard his call. "I do have one question actually, I just can't be sure because of the-" He doesn't know how to describe the illusion without being rude. "Would you mind if I call you Freddie? I don't mean to be rude. Can you tell me what your name is?"

The good news is that Freddie doesn't look offended if anything he looks as though this matter is too trivial to deal with. "You can call me Freddie, works well enough in your language and with your vocal capacity." Ah but of course, the snow-white skin and the crystal fractals contain vocal cords that are beyond mere humans. "But if you are curious to know I am named after the warmest of the planets for despite my frosty domain, I have determination that burns like that of the sun."

Brian doesn't even know if he is still in his solar system, for all he knows this alien took him far, far away. But even if he is on Europa, its inhabitants would hardly name the planets the same, although the idea of explaining the roman pantheon to aliens is amusing. "We call it Mercury." 

Freddie's blinks his dark, piercing eyes and looks rather flattered. "Freddie Mercury," he tries.

"Rolls right off the tongue," Brian confirms with a smile. It might be a little unusual for a name but honestly completely normal by the standards of an alien that rules the tundra.


	2. Chapter 2

Freddie opens the cabin door and rather than an interior as cozy as the outside suggested, it leads into an impossible 'outdoor' room, the winter landscape is abruptly a grey Breton looking coastline with biting wind. They stand at the top of a rolling hill of green grass that is empty but for another door.

Brian thinks they are transitioning into where is might be that door would lead but instead Freddie waits, both feet firmly in the snow and a hand on Brian's arm so that he does not move further than the doorway. He wonders what they are doing here then, when the other door opens.

It opens just enough for one being to squeeze himself through, leaving his hand on the other side. If Freddie is the winter and Mercury, surely this must be the summer and Pluto. Before him is possibly the prettiest man Brian has ever seen with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He's appears to be an alien as well for the golden-hue of his skin and a pattern like that of watered steel in white. Where Freddie's clothes are liquid gold, this man's practical workmanlike outfit is equally made of silver. 

The man has a cocky grin as he steps through the door, "Freddie must you always make such a fuss."

"Always," Freddie replied with a twinkle in his eye, "And please know that I have an additional name now, Mercury."

The Pluto huffs as though unsurprised by this development, "Yeah, that's not all that's new." Brian gets ready to step forward and introduce himself when the other door is flung open and John Deacon still in his space walking suit is brought out.


End file.
